The present invention relates to the field of media services.
Media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data and may refer to any means of information communication. Electronic media is enjoying broader use every day with an increase in electronic devices being manufactured.
Media services may provide consumers with access to media such as video and/or music. Some media services may provide further information with respect to the requested media, for example in the form of video annotations (e.g. differently-positioned text overlays), subtitles and information provided separately from the video content.
The term “metadata” means information with respect to data. The term may relate to two different concepts: structural metadata or descriptive metadata. Descriptive metadata is about individual instances of application data, the data content. Metadata are traditionally found in the card catalogs of libraries. As information has become increasingly digital, metadata are also used to describe digital data using metadata standards specific to a particular discipline. By describing the contents and context of data files, the quality of the original data/files is greatly increased. For example, a webpage may include metadata specifying what language it is written in, what tools were used to create it, and where to go for more on the subject, allowing browsers to automatically improve the experience of users. Metadata are very useful, for example, metadata in video may include information about its contents (such as transcripts of conversations and text descriptions of its scenes).
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the figures.